


The Surprise

by Ghelik



Series: The 100 Fics [13]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 03:36:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9104947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghelik/pseuds/Ghelik
Summary: Emori wants to give Murphy the best present. It's complicated.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Again a Tumblr prompt

"I need a real answer, Raven!"

  
When Clarke comes back to their table with the third round of their girls’ night out Emori’s nearly banging her head against the table and Raven looks very baffled."What are we talking about?"

  
Octavia’s unimpressed stare shifts from Emori to her sister-in-law. Octavia doesn’t have very high opinions of Emori or her boyfriend. Then again, Octavia doesn’t have very high opinions of anybody outside of the fighting ring.

  
"Emori’s stressing over Christmas presents."

  
"I didn’t know you guys celebrated Christmas" says Clarke sitting down next to Raven.

  
It’s November the twenty-eighth, so she hasn’t even started thinking about the whole Christmas thing other than they won’t be going to her mother’s this year, since she decided to book a romantic cruise with her “new” boyfriend.

He isn’t new by any means, but Abby Griffin has been denying her relationship for the last ten years.

Clarke doesn’t know Emori that much. She’s Raven’s friend and Clarke’s husband shared a flat with Emori’s boyfriend, John Murphy, for a while. Bellamy and Murphy are friends – even though Clarke can’t, for the life of her, understand why. Apparently he has a bakery and is an amazing cook, but Clarke’s still half convinced he’s a second-rate drug dealer, a pimp or some other sort of criminal. Emori’s fine, though.

  
"It’s his favorite holiday"  
Octavia snorts. "Murphy has a favorite holiday?"

  
"Why on earth would Christmas be his favorite?" asks Clarke, feeling dumbstruck.

  
"Yeah. He seems more of a Saint Patrick’s Day kind of guy" Octavia rises her fist for a fist bump and Clarke obliges.

  
Emori shifts uncomfortably on her stool and Clarke feels a little guilty for making fun of Murphy in front of her. For reasons unknown she seems to continue being in love with that guy.

"Ok" she clears her throat, sobering a little. She’s the organized one of the group. She can as well help Emori out. "What are the options? Do you know what he’s going to get you?"

  
Emori raises her eyebrows. "Right now he’s on denial. Acting like he hasn’t everything perfectly planed."  
  
"He plans the holidays?" Octavia laughs again. "What does he plan?"

  
She shifts uncomfortably again and Raven takes pity on her.  
  


"What did you get him last year?"

  
"Tickets for the Lion King in New York."

  
Octavia snorts her into her beer and promptly starts coughing. Raven shoots her an angry look at Emori’s dismayed expression.

"Ignore Octavia. She’s drunk"

  
"You gave him tickets for a musical!" laughs the younger girl, nearly doubled over, beer running out of her nose.

  
"Well I found the tickets for a weekend in New York he was going to give me." she shrugs. "It was a good idea. He loved the show" she adds defiantly staring at Octavia. "But this year I am sure he’s hidden it in the bakery so that I don’t find it."

  
"That’s sweet" mumbles Clarke into her drink.

It is. Her and Bellamy don’t really do that much for Christmas and they shop for presents together, neither too fond of surprises. "What would you want to get for Christmas?" asks Raven.

  
"I would like to know what to get that man!"

  
Clarke pats Emori’s right hand resting on the table, her left hidden beneath it, like always. The girl is very self-conscious of her deformed left hand.  
"Ok, so what about the year before that?"

  
"He got me a tattoo from my favorite artist. He was coming to Arkadia on February and he had booked me an appointment."

"And what did you get him?"  
Emori blushes to the roots of her long black hair. "New trainers. He really needed those."

  
Raven rolls her eyes. "Yeah, he definitely hated those."

Emori looks put out as she nods.

"You should just put a bow on you." Octavia wiggles her eyebrows suggestively at her. "All men like that kind of gift."

  
Raven kicks her beneath the table, but misses and gets Emori instead. "He’s not like that" mumbles Emori into her drink.

"What?" Octavia raises her eyebrows. "He’s sensitive? Come on, Ems. This is Murphy we’re talking about."

  
The girl shifts on her chair and switches topics rather abruptly.

 

***

Three days before Christmas Emori still doesn’t know what to get her boyfriend and is starting to despair. It really is just so unfair, because she wants to make him happy and he’s just such a difficult person to please. In her life she hasn’t had to make that many Christmas presents: her parents died when she was very young and for most of her life she didn’t have any money at all, so she handcrafted gifts for her friends at the orphanage and the best one always went to her half-brother Otan. She still handcrafts and sends Christmas-decorations and cookies to her friends back in Agramount. But she has no clue what she could handcraft for John.

  
She’s window-shopping, trying to decide what will be an OK present.

John has told her about Christmas when his father was alive: how they would set the tree together and their home always smelled of backed goodies. How his father always enjoyed building a ridiculously oversized Nativity Scene, complete with roads and hand-crafted tiny buildings in the distance. They would invite their family and friends for an amazing meal and open mountains of gifts.

And then his father died and his mother started drinking and alienating and beating him and “Christmas just got canceled for a while”. Emori knows he’s still waiting for it to be perfect, but they’re both on their own and…

She stops.

Well, there’s an idea…

***

 

Murphy has never been too fond of people, whether they barge uninvited into his home and promptly kidnap him or not. The kidnapping does not help his general distaste for human beings. The only good thing is that it’s Raven the one doing the kidnaping. Raven has been his best friend ever since his dad died and they bonded over abusive alcoholic mothers. She’s honest, has a dry sense of humor and doesn’t take bullshit from anyone, him included, which is everything he likes about people.  
He’s awkwardly sitting at a café between his childhood friend and Roan Wild, Emori’s boss: who is an enormous, muscle-packed dude in a ponytail who most certainly does not scare him shitless, so shut up.

  
Murphy is not sure why he’s here. One moment he was comfortably chopping onions in his kitchen and the next Raven busted into his human followed by Ems’ boss, who promptly removed him from his kitchen. Raven allowed him one text to explain stuff to Emori – who had been in the shower and hadn’t heard anything – and then confiscated the phone. Since then he’s been dragged around like a child and is currently sitting between the two of them at a café.

  
It’s like this people don’t know it’s Christmas Eve and he has a ton of stuff to do for tonight’s dinner. He wanted to surprise Emori with her favorite dish and that takes time, people!

He has tried to squirm out of the conversation and back home, he has tried the silent treatment and he has tried glaring at Raven and telling them how very unimpressed he’s with their weird mating rituals. At which point he got a clap on the back by the giant that has rattled every bone in his body. Now he’s just sullenly sitting there, playing with the tiny box containing Emori’s present and trying to ignore the flirt-fight Raven and Roan are engrossed in over his head – because they’re flanking him in an attempt to prevent him from bolting.

  
By the time they decide to return him home it’s five fifteen and he’s never going to be able to prepare dinner in time, which has him in a very un-Christmassy- mood.  
Raven and Roan follow him up the stairs, even though one would think they’d jump at the moment when he left them alone to go and hook up or something.  
  


"Ems! I’m home!" he calls and wants to slam his door in Raven’s face, but she just barges in followed by Roan.  
  


"In here!" answers his girlfriend from the living-room.

He opens the door, ready to launch on a detailed account why people are just annoying, and nearly dies of a heart attack when half a dozen people shout at him:  
  
"SURPRISE!"

  
He blinks like a stupefied fish for a few moments: they’ve set up a gorgeous tree, with sparkly red and white decorations and a million tiny lights; the table has been pushed against the wall and is laden with canapés and neatly organized champagne flutes and wine glasses. Emori’s standing next to it, looking sheepish and unsure in a red Mama Claus dress that falls down to her knees and ends in white trim making her the most beautiful Mrs. Santa in the world.

  
"My god, you’re perfect" is all he can say and a second later he would beat himself with a frying pan, but Emori’s face splits into a dazzling smile and maybe it’s not so bad.

  
Their friends seem to take it as their cue to start moving and talking, not harassing him with conversation, but being there, just existing around him and that’s probably the main reason they’re his friends in the first place. He wanders over to Emori, and she plants a pair of plastic antlers on his head.  
  


"I know you’re not very fond of surprises, but…"

  
He kisses her, holding her as close as possible. The dress is very soft under his calloused hands.

"I love it."  
And then someone- Jasper, probably- excitedly announces: "What time is it? Presents time!"

  
And starts calling names and giving packages around like an elf on speed. Murphy slips the tiny box into Emori’s hand.

"It’s not much, but…"

  
She tears the package before he can even finish and her smile is gigantic when she pulls the earrings out.

"I love them" and kisses him until he’s breathless.

  
Someone snaps a picture of them, the flash a little too close. Emori pulls one of the earrings against her face to let Monty snap another picture, the tiny diamonds sparkling beautifully against her cheek in a myriad of rainbows.

  
"Yo! Murphy!" Jasper’s voice pulls him shrilly from his musings. "This one’s for you!"

  
He looks over to the tree, where one lonesome round box very badly wrapped in yellow glittery paper is sitting all by its lonesome. For a moment he considers not opening it, not when there are so many people around, but… well it’s Christmas and he loves opening presents.

  
He saunters over pulling the big yellow bow on his antlers and making someone laugh before tearing the paper and pulling the lid of the box out.

  
Something tiny and brown jumps at him so suddenly he topples over and it takes him a moment to understand what he’s holding. The puppy is brown, has a long snout and pointy ears. He catches it before it can fall to the ground and holds it against his chest while it wiggles and covers his face in slobber, clawing at his shirt. He loves him instantly.

  
When he looks over at Emori, she’s wearing his earrings, looking perfect and, when Bellamy helps him up and they toast – the tiny dog resting happily in his arm –he feels like this is probably the best Christmas he has ever had.

**Author's Note:**

> This has not been betaed.  
> Thanks as always for reading.


End file.
